Our Stage and Its Critics eBook

The Yogi Teachings relating to the Law of Karma do
not teach us that Sin is an offense against the Power
which brought us into being, so much as it is an offense
against ourselves. We cannot injure the Absolute,
nor harm It in any way. But we may harm each other,
and in so doing harm ourselves. The Yogis teach
that Sin is largely a matter of ignorance and misunderstanding
of our true nature, and that the lesson must be well
learned until we are able to see the folly and error
of our former course, and thus are able to remedy
our past errors and to avoid their recurrence.
By Karma the effects arising from our sins cling to
us, until we become sick and weary of them, and seek
their cause in our hearts. When we have discovered
the evil cause of these effects, we learn to hate
it and tear it from us as a foul thing, and are thence
evermore relieved of it.

The Yogis view the sinning soul as the parent does
the child who will persist in playing with forbidden
things. The parent cautions the child against
playing with the stove, but still the child persists
in its disobedience, and sooner or later receives
a burn for its meddling. The burn is not a punishment
for the disobedience (although it may seem so to it)
but comes in obedience to a natural law which is invariable.
To child finds out that stoves and burns are connected,
and begins to see some sense and reason in the admonitions
of the parent. The love of the parent sought
to save the child the pain of the burn, and yet the
child-nature persisted in experimenting, and was taught
the lesson. But the lesson once thoroughly learned,
it is not necessary to forbid the child the stove,
for it has learned the danger for itself and thereafter
avoids it.

And thus it is with the human soul passing on from
one life to another. It learns new lessons, gathers
new experiences, and learns to recognize the pain
that invariably comes from Wrong Action, and the Happiness
that invariably comes from Right Action. As it
progresses it learns how hurtful certain courses of
action are, and like the burnt child it avoids them
thereafter.

If we will but stop to consider for a moment the relative
degrees of temptation to us and to others, we may
see the operations of past Karma in former lives.
Why is it that this thing is “no temptation”
to you, while it is the greatest temptation to another.
Why is it that certain things do not seem to have
any attraction for him, and yet they attract you so
much that you have to use all of your will power to
resist them? It is because of the Karma in your
past lives. The things that do not now tempt
you, have been outlived in some former life, and you
have profited by your own experiences, or those of
others, or else through some teaching given you by
one who had been attracted to you by your unfolding
consciousness of Truth.